The research will aim to strengthen the BBC's ability to understand and respond to disinformation and help build information resilience.

The findings explore how BBC journalism impacts the online information space both through scale, presence and pace of reporting as well as debunking.

Global levels of uncertainty and instability are reaching new heights, fuelled by contested information online, exacerbated by barriers to accessing news, says BBC.

Using BBC Monitoring and the BBC's Global Audiences team, the BBC World Service says it worked with the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM Technology) to look at highly contested and complex information markets.

Researchers focused on two environments across the BBC's 45 languages — Russian and Arabic — to examine the challenge. The teams assessed over 100 000 posts from known disinformation accounts and over 54 000 mentioning the BBC across 11 social platforms between Sunday, 1 February and Sunday, 31 May. 

The Global Signals research aims to identify three key ways in which the BBC influences the global information environment.

According to the BBC, the three key ways are as following:

  • Directs Attention: It's essential for the BBC to be part of the information ecosystem at scale before disinformation or false information can fill the vacuum. The BBC aims to be part of the conversation in key global moments and responds quickly.
  • Shapes Interpretation: The BBC aims to be used as a source to establish facts and to provide important context and analysis.
  • Trusted Authority: The BBC proactively aims to debunk claims and is widely used as an authoritative source.

"This pioneering research is the start of a much deeper understanding of the BBC's role in complex information markets. While it recognises the importance of journalism that debunks and verifies, is also underlines the importance of scale and presence, and ensuring we're responding at pace," says Fiona Crack, Director of BBC World Service.

"If our BBC teams better understand the information environment and the false narratives our audiences are exposed to, we can ensure that our daily news and content, including the mix of reporting, explanation and analysis, responds to their needs," adds Crack. "In this context, accurate and impartial journalism that people can trust has never been more important."

"This research shows that the BBC's role in confronting information threats isn't just about debunking and factchecking," says Carl Miller, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM Technology). "From capturing attention in the first place to providing context and analysis in how events are understood, we can see the BBC confers additional protections to our information integrity before disinformation is even created."

"This work is the first of its kind and seeks to better understand the information ecosystem the BBC World Service is operating in. The findings suggest the level of the problem is much vaster than we had anticipated," adds Miller. 

BBC News Arabic is the BBC's largest and oldest language service reaching over 37-million people on average every week. In 2025 / 26, BBC News Russian reached 6.5-million Russian speakers on average every week — up over 45% year-on-year, says BBC.

The BBC concludes that its response to the Government's Green Paper outlined the critical role of the BBC in rising to the challenge of information resilience and countering disinformation. This includes the contribution the BBC makes in defending democratic values and strengthening epistemic security across the globe.

The research can be accessed here.

For more information, visit www.bbc.com. You can also follow BBC World Service on Facebook, or on Instagram. 

*Image courtesy of contributor